


40 is the new...

by Activeimagination



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 10:27:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11484456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Activeimagination/pseuds/Activeimagination
Summary: So looking forward to the future when all this is sorted. Robert is 40 and he and Aaron are celebrating with their nearest and dearest.





	40 is the new...

40 is the new….. 

Aaron Dingle climbed the spiral staircase carefully holding the tray as steadily as he could. His husband was still asleep and the April light was beginning to make its presence felt in their room. He left the tray on the floor and knelt over his husband planting a loving kiss directly onto his lips.  
‘Wakey wakey Robert, you might be pushing on but no excuse not to get up and at it’  
Robert stirred and stretched.  
‘How about I get at you instead’ and his hand reached down towards a place it had gone many, many times before.  
‘Daddy, Daddy it’s your big Happy Birthday’, a four year old boy was racing into the room with a home made card and arm wide open.  
‘Ah, who’s the best boy then?’, Robert looked down at the young lad’s dark hair and blue eyes. They had not asked to know whose sperm had been used in the surrogacy but the question was answered every time he looked at Luke Dingle Sugden.  
‘Don’t be sad Pappy, I maked one for you too, look’.  
‘You are the best boy little Luke you really are’, Aaron wrapped his arms around his son. He had never admitted to knowing whose they must have used but knew in his heart it was his.  
‘Matthew helped me a little bit with the colours but I did the best job’  
‘Of course you did, now come here and help Daddy and Pappy eat their breakfast’.

oOo

‘Your lunch is there on the counter Matthew’  
‘Thanks Pap, I could stay at home for Dad’s birthday you know?’  
‘Really?’  
‘Yeah definitely, I’ll catch up tomorrow’  
‘Young man you are going to school, now two secs and I’ll walk you to the bus’  
Aaron walked Matthew to the bus and left Luke at day care. He wandered to the café and grabbed a coffee and a fancier one for his husband.  
‘All set for later eh, can’t wait, blondie getting on but eh I still would you know’  
‘I have no doubt you would’, not for the first time Aaron reflected on the nature of the conversations he had with his grandmother. He walked back to the Mill and found Robert standing looking at photographs on the mantle piece. Their two weddings, them and Liv, them and the boys, one of all of them later. He still looked well, had kept his look although there were a few more greys mixed with the blond locks, from the rear he agreed with his grandmother that his husband had one of the finest rears in Yorkshire. He looked around and Aaron saw that he had been teary, these photographs always had a similar effect.  
‘Come on Mr Dingle, 40 isn’t that bad surely’  
‘No’, he smiled, ‘I’m so lucky, I don’t deserve this, any of this’  
‘Yes, you do, we all do’  
They embraced and the energy spread through their entire bodies.  
‘We could go up stairs’  
‘We could but you have to meet Andy, remember?’  
‘You know I’m not sure why he is insisting on this, it isn’t as if we got on all that well all the time, I’d much rather spend the day with you and why you insisted on asking him back this evening I will never know’  
‘I did and we are having the meal tonight here, should be a sedate affair with the boys but Andy wants to spend today with you and there is no harm in that. Also when he is here the boys will enjoy him and he can call to Jack and Sarah too. Now scoot, I have work to get to’  
‘You do know I could get you upstairs in two seconds flat’  
‘Yes, I know that and I could have you here in about half that time but we need to start acting our age’. 

oOo 

Later that evening Aaron was sitting on the edge of his bed, in about half an hour people would start arriving. The Dingle clan in all their glory to celebrate the birthday of a man they considered truly one of their own. Vic and her two kids along with her husband. His Mum and Paddy, Pearl, Rhona and well most of the village really. Cain and Moira had taken the boys for the evening and they would be here soon as well. Then an hour from now Andy would lead his husband through the door. Rob had often described the stress of their first surprise wedding and now he had an idea how it must have felt. 

As he went down stairs he could hear Liv and her boyfriend having a discussion, they had plenty of those but this one seemed to be good for her. He checked on everything, the decorations, the food, it all looked fine, well poncy would have been one word he could use but as Liv and Vic kept reminding him this was Robert’s birthday and he would love it. He abled to the mantle piece and looked at the photo of all of them.  
‘Who’d have thought eh?’, Liv tapped him on the shoulder.  
‘Yeah, God I never thought I’d get here, that we would get here’  
‘Well we did, we all did’  
‘They are ok, aren’t they’  
‘They are perfect boys, the two of them, Luke is an angel and Matthew has luckily the best of his Dad’  
‘He never knew his…and what I thought of her and almost wished for, Good God Liv’  
‘Aaron, look at me and listen to this. Matthew is a good lad who has the great fortune of having two men who would die for each other love him as much as they love each other. You’ve known that since that awful day he was born’

oOo

She was right. The day Matthew was born was awful in many ways, a day the village would never forget. He had been in Leeds and had heard of the incidents at Home Farm on the news on the radio. He got home, Robert had been in the other flat at that stage but they were civil, the love he had for him had not diminished but they were respecting boundaries. He was listening to his Mum recount what she had heard about the shootings at Home Farm when Rob texted ‘I have no right to do this but I’m at the hospital, Rebecca will not make it but the baby might, I love you and I need you’. He had shown it to Chas, she had asked him what he wanted to do saying he could ignore it. His response was simple  
‘I can’t Mum, you know that’  
‘Ok, let’s go’

By the time they had reached the hospital Rebecca had died, the third victim of her crazed nephew. Diane, Vic and Bernice were looking in the window of the neo natal room. Robert was standing over an incubator with a little boy grabbing on to his little finger. In that instant Aaron felt nothing but love, love for the man he knew he wanted to spend his life with and love for the son he now had. Robert noticed him and came out.  
‘Aaron, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have texted you’  
‘It’s ok’  
‘No it’s not, I’m not going to put you through this’, he looked towards Aaron’s chest and stomach.  
‘I’m here Robert’  
They had sat in silence for most of the night holding hands. Aaron had visited the hospital each day until Matthew was ready to come home. On that day he had waited in the Mill and heard Robert going into the flat.  
‘What are you doing?’  
‘Oh, God, sorry, I should have asked, sorry I’ll go to Diane’s for now, I’m sorry Aaron’  
‘You are not going to Diane’s. There is a cot in our room and you are coming home to where you belong, to where we belong, you, Liv, me and that baby boy’. 

oOo

It was almost ten, the boys had gone on a sleep over with Laurel after Dad had cut the cake. Aaron nodded towards Cain and he called for hush.  
‘Ladies and gentlemen, using both terms liberally in some cases I want to thank you all for coming to celebrate my husband’s birthday. I am going to keep this short so you can all be relieved. It is fair to say that we have had our moments and that a lot of people in this room, ourselves included, wondered would we ever make it. We did and I want to say that Robert, I love you with all my heart. I love our two boys and the family that we have here in this house. Vic and Andy, thank you for being here for your brother and Diane too. To all my lot, cheers for coming and not wrecking the place. And to the rest of you folk, you are our neighbours and friends, you look out for our lads, you make us feel welcome in this village and while my husband and I took a while to find a place to call home we really could not have found a better place and people. So thank you and you know eat drink and be merry’

Robert looked over and mouthed the words thank you. Their family and friends looked and saw a couple looking towards each other in love with each other, in love with the loves of their lives. 

oOo

it was the early hours of the morning when they went to their room.  
‘Thank you Aaron, for everything’  
‘You are welcome’  
‘We did it you know’  
‘No Robert, we are doing it, and we will be doing it tomorrow and the day after and the day after until you are like eighty, no make that ninety’  
‘Is that a promise?’  
‘For sure Mr Dingle, for sure’


End file.
